bryris

Just finished an LT-40 kit. My next kit is going to be a Goldberg Chipmunk. I am gonna pick it up this weekend. A guy at the field is giving it to me for FREE!!! Can't beat that. Looks like a great plane in the pictures that I have seen.

Just wanted to get some opinions on the difficulty of the build compared to the LT-40 or the SSE.

Thanks.

DaveB

I didn't build the Lt-40 or the SSE, but I have built many other planes, e.g. 4*40, Pete 'n Poke, Super Sportster 60, Sky Tiger and of and the Chipmonk and many more besides.

As far as the Chipmonk, it builds about the same as most kits. Pretty easy, actually; just follow the instruction manual and build straight. It's a great flier and sure has good looks. I'm about to recover mine and fly it for a few more years.

DaveB

DavidAgar

My Feedback: (108)

I have to agree with the build it and fly it thought. It is a great kit and if you follow the direction's you will not have any problems. The cowling could be a 2 piece ABS thing that will work, however you might want to consider an after market one from Fiberglass Specality or the likes there off. I think that the newer Chipmunk kits had a fiberglass one piece cowling included, so maybe you will get lucky. They are great planes to fly. I have an OS 61 on mine and it does all that I want it to do. I have the flaps as well and they are fun to play with in flight. Good Luck, Dave

bryris

Thanks....I am looking forward to the build.

Jerry Sigur

If you're going with the fixed gear, beef up the mounting blocks.
Great flying model.
Jerry

cheechukranch

It's a generally easy build. The fuse and wing goes together really quickly, however, the finishing (cowl, canopy, cockpit painting) is taking what feels like forever. I covered the plane with white solartex and I'm painting on the Art S. color scheme with rustoleum. I ordered a cowl from fiberglass specialties and it is far more durable and scale in apperance. Lots of masking on the paint job, but it looks very cool! Ditto on the gear blocks, buy some hardwood ones from sig or make your own. The ply in my kit was crappy. I'm using a TT 91 FS and decided to mount the servos in the rear for balance. I used a 4-40 pull-pull rudder and a very short 4-40 elevator rod and there is zero play on the control surfaces. I'll post some photos if you're interested.

TexasAirBoss

My Feedback: (22)

I finished one just a couple of months ago. It is a beginners kit. Very easy build. Covering that bad boy is the trick !!! Flys great. You will enjoy it very much.

ps. The red stripes are rustoleum, haven't come off yet.

Oh, and I tossed the plastic wing tips and made some out of balsa, wish I had done the same with the belly pans.

Strat2003

My Feedback: (1)

I'll second the recomendation for an aftemarket fiberglass cowl if you have one with the ABS plastic one. The plastic can be made to look good but develops cracks after a while. I'd also go along with replacing the plastic wingtips with carved and hollowed balsa, and while you're at it do the fairings for the wing out of balsa, too. Putting covering over that plastic is tricky, and making the parts out of wood isn't that hard.

Mine is many years old with lots of hours on its OS .91 Surpass. It's on it's second covering job and still flies great...it's the airplane I keep coming back to!

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

I love this plane, but here's a few tips:

Skip the belcranks for the ailerons, either go with two servos, or replace the pushrod/belcrank setup with nyrod - type pushrods

I did use the plastic parts and didn't really have any trouble with them.

A neat trick on the cowl is to not glue the two halves together. Instead, glue a strip of scrap ABS to one side and screw the other side to it. This allows you to remove the cowl without having to remove the spinner and prop.

blvdbuzzard

I have built 3 of these great flying planes. I would also say to beef the landing gear block up a little, go with two alieron servos and add the flap option. With flaps down this plane will land slower then your trainer. I used the 4-40 rods and carbon arrow shaft for the the rudder and elevators. I also used Rocket City ball links so I had no problem with slop. I have not seen the new kits so I don't know if they still come with the plastic wing tips, I tossed mine and carved them out of balsa. I also built up the belly pans out of balsa and 1/32 ply. When I built mine there was no one making glass parts so I had to use the plastic. They lasted until the plane burried itself so I can not complain.


Dru.

cheechukranch

I used the platic wingtips and belly pan, but filled them with Great Stuff spray insulation. They are now hard and light...and no carving.

x-craft

My Feedback: (3)

I'm just finishing up my goldberg chipmunk, I can second and third about anything stated previously. It builds easily and straight. Ditto on the LG mounts. That's about the worse thing I found. I used the plastic stuff and had little trouble. Rather than trying to iron covering onto the plastic parts, paint them. I like the idea of filling them with great stuff foam. I never though of that. Wish I had read that sooner. oh well, there will always be a next time. Mine will have a 0s91fs for power and have the optional flaps. I'm hoping to do the maiden flight in a couple weeks. Good luck with yours, it sounds like they are great flying planes.


X-craft

eaglelope

Pics please! That pic you posted of your canopy in another thread is howing just enough to make me want to see more!

My Chippy is still coming along... oh so slowly.

Mark

TexasAirBoss

My Feedback: (22)

OK, I don't know if you were talking to me or not, but I'll give up one tiny canopy secrete. Shoot grey primer first , then the color coat. Looks better if the inside is different than the outside.

x-craft

My Feedback: (3)

Here are pics of my chippie, it's not finished yet but it's getting there. I'm also posting a pic of the full scale version. I decided I wanted to modify and since you can't see the top of the wing in the pic I decided to just come up with my own version of trim for the wing.

warhwk

My Feedback: (3)

I'm on my 4'th Chipmunk in 16 years. I lost my first one due to a bell-crank failure. Go the two-servo route as suggested previously. I also bent my own gear out of 3/16" music wire and re-inforced the landing gear blocks. I built mine in about three weeks of evenings. It was an easy build except for the CAP strips. Doing that was the only tedious part.

Stan's fiberglass makes a very nice cowl, but I glassed mine and it held up ok with a YS- 1.20. It's a great flying plane. Gonna dust mine off and go fly it this weekend.

eaglelope

Great looking birds Kingwodbarney and x-craft! You did a nice job copying that full-scale scheme x! Great idea on the two-tone canopy trim kingwoodbarney!

Kingwoodbarney, from your tip on painting, I'm assuming you painted the outside of the canopy. X-craft, it looks like you painted the inside. Is that right? What kind of paint did you guys use?

I got a little further on my Chippie last night. The tailfeathers are done, the fuse box is at the point where I need the wing to continue, and I just finished the sheeting on the wing. I'm currently trying to sand/trim the leading edge of the sheeting so I can attache the LE strip. That is proving to be somehwat tedious for me but I figure it's got to be right so I'm taking my time. Any magic techniques would be appreciated!

Question on the great stuff foam. I'm going back and forth deciding between carving tips and belly pans vs. using the plastic. I'm getting impatient o I'm leaning towards just using the plastic. If I use the foam to fill the tips should I fill the tips first and then sand to glue in the tip ribs or glue in the ribs and then fill with foam? I'm thinking foam first (if at all) as expanding foam behind the rib might distort the tip or crack the rib. Thoughts?

So many questions....
Mark

cheechukranch

Mark

I did the foam tips and it worked well. Glue the rib in the wingtip, let it set up, then spray in the foam. The excess will expand through the hole in the rib. Cut off the excess, sand the surface, and you have a very durable, light tip. Wait a couple of days to allow for full expansion before glueing the tip to the wing. I did the same thing with the belly pan. I covered mine with solartex and it actually sticks well to plastic. I don't see the point really in taking the time to carve these parts from balsa. Just my opinion. Good luck!

eaglelope

Thanks Cheechukranch! I like that idea and I'll give it a try. I'm thinking I'll just paint the plastic parts. I wasn't looking forward to covering the tips anyway.

TexasAirBoss

My Feedback: (22)

Yep, I painted the outside of the canopy. I think it is easier to tape that way. I used krylon grey primer and then Lustercote white.

I carved wooden wing tips. I say carved. I traced the plastic tip on to a block, cut it on the scroll saw, CA'ed that to the wing and them buzzed it down with a palm sander. I rap the wing with tape to protect it from the palm sander . So when I am done, and take the tape off, I still need to hand sand down that last little bit, the thickness of the tape. I also cut the aileron and clued about an inch of it to the wing tip just to give it a little meat .

My plastic belly pans are OK I guess. The RC 560 wasn't working too good. After a few flights this corner or that corner was coming up. I tried some plastic CA and that did the trick, nothing has come loose since.

A pretty smart fellow in Mexico City, named Bulle did a clever thing. He cut the seat out of the cockpit floor and raised it up. It looked great ! His build project has floated down a few pages here, but it is worth searching for. He sheeted the entire airplane with balsa and reshaped the fueslage to make it rounder. And he flys at about 7400 feet elevation ! I think he used a 2 stroke 90.

Hey, quit reading and get to work !!

eaglelope

Thanks kwb! I saw Bule's posts about the cockpit in the Scale forum [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_2398516/anchors_2777133/mpage_1/key_/anchor/tm.htm#2777133]here[/link]. That is way cool! I may have to give that a try on my Chippy.

This is only my second kit but I'm starting to get hooked on scale. Of course, I tend to be impatient and those two things don't seem like they'd go well together.